Friday Night Lights used high school football as a vehicle to explore plainly and authentically the way in which people live, struggle and thrive in small towns. It just might be the finest scripted series on prime time.

This four-part adaptation of Shakespeare’s historical cycle (“Richard II, “Henry IV, Part 1,” “Henry IV, Part 2” and “Henry V”) spotlighting the battle to win and to hold the English crown is both brilliant and eminently accessible.

American Crime’s direction is uncertain, but it looks to be one of the more uncomfortable, engrossing rides any commercial broadcast series has taken. Put away the phone and sit yourself down. You’ll want to see where this goes.

There hasn't been a show since "The Sopranos" so concerned with bodily functions, and it makes its oft-compared predecessor "Sex and the City" look like a TeenNick production. But it's also fresh, bracing and original.

TV Land's first original sitcom is the surprise of the summer, a sparkling, breezy comedy, in no small part due to the casting of this year's It Girl, 88-year-old Betty White as a cantankerous caretaker.

The character Lorne Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton) might remind you of Leland Gaunt of Stephen King’s “Needful Things”: He knows just what words to drop to create mayhem. Freeman is outstanding as the little guy whose one moment of rage has far-reaching consequences.